UCI News

Nursing professor to study fitness therapies with grant from National Institute on Aging

April 4, 2018
Nursing professor to study fitness therapies with grant from National Institute on Aging
Lorraine Evangelista will conduct feasibility testing of two behavioral fitness-intensive therapies. Steve Zylius / UCI

Lorraine Evangelista, professor and interim associate dean of Academic & Student Affairs in the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, was awarded an exploratory/developmental research grant by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (R21AG053162) for her study entitled, “Fitness Intensive Therapy (Get FIT) to Promote Healthy Living in Older Adults.” The award totals nearly $425,000 and will fund the feasibility testing of two behavioral Fitness Intensive Therapies: Get FIT and Get FIT+. Get FIT includes Lose It©, an mhealth-based intervention, plus a wearable Fitbit® device to monitor physical activity patterns. Participants will be monitored for three months and given one 45-minute behavioral counseling session focused on healthy eating and exercise. The Get FIT+ participants will receive all of the program elements included in Get FIT, along with personalized text messaging from a health coach. The study will include adults 60-years and older and at risk for cardiovascular disease. Researchers will measure the impact of Get FIT vs. Get FIT+ on diet and physical activity, clinical outcomes, psychosocial well-being, patient engagement, and recruitment and retention rates at three and six months, in preparation for a larger randomized clinical trial.